I just shot a news story with a Canon GL-1 (3CCDs). Can I take that miniDV tape and put it in my Sony TRV11 (1CCD) and capture the footage to my computer with no quality loss?

Or will the footage look different on my TRV11 since I shot it with the GL-1?

I don't use either of those cams but my understanding is that you can do what you want. The CCDs don't come into play when transferring video over Firewire so that won't matter. The only issue might be head alignment. If one is off a bit relative to the other you might have a problem. And if the video was shot at LP speed you almost certainly will have a problem. SP should be fine, however.

Best thing to do is give it a try before you're under schedule pressure or in the field without an alternative.

Good luck.

Dennis

That's what I was thinking, Dennis. The CCDs aren't involved in the capturing process. I shot in SP mode, so I will try it out and see what happens.

You will have no problems and the footage will not be touched as you are using the second camera as a data server.

I wouldn't say you won't have any problems. However, if you have
a problem it will be with tape/head alignment and the second
camera will have trouble reading the signal from the tape. But if it
can read the signal correctly there is no problem at all since it just
acts as a data server as Mike explained.